Multiple travesties, when blended with humour, form a farce. A pity it is that in "Volver" most of the comedy falls with a thud to the floor and the reemergence of dead people and buried secrets fledges into something altogether sentimental and melodramatic. The story centres on Raimunda (Penelopé Cruz), blossoming into a delicate portrait of domestic goddesses and echoing through three generations of women. The set-up is the kind of airport-novel-of-a-movie my mother would sit down to read on a rainy day, and certainly most women with lap up Pedro Almodóvar's flatteringly strong depiction of them, but will "Volver" it find an audience with men?
For all its wide-ranging and complex family tree that needs screen time, the film does progress at a rather sedated and patient speed, often lingering not on plot elements but on the working class-ness and the struggle of each woman, whether it be abuse or overwork. In the first scene of the film, we are told that in La Mancha men die young and women live to be much older, resuming all the work. The men in "Volver" are nearly all marginal set pieces, as is usually Almodovar's style. This is all sweet and sensitive to the fairer sex, but the director loses himself in the idolization and empowering of women. When her father tries to rape her and she kills him in with a knife self-defense, Paula spends the rest of the film smiling, overcoming and moving on. The absolute faith in the power of women makes the characters of "Volver" not nuanced persons, but unrealistic superwomen.
Raimunda played by Penelope Cruz, inhabiting the protagonist slot, elicits the most sympathy from the viewer and rightly so for she is both well-written and well-acted. I think most people will be happy to find her altogether unlike the stereotypical 'hot Latina' roles she is relegated to play in Hollywood, and often completely botches. In "Volver" Cruz is emotive, fluent and comfortable, and most importantly back to her old Spanish self, albeit amended with a prosthetic butt, a few extra pounds and pushed-up breasts. Raimunda, her friends and her sisters all passionately bicker with Latina moods that shift with the breeze, but at the end of the day they all care immensely for each other.
I never bothered to recap the plot, partly because it is complex and confusing even for me, and partly because it does not seem wholly relevant to the story Pedro Almodóvar is trying to tell. His naked intention is to give us a portrait, not a finely-sketched out plot outline. Meanwhile, the portrait is truly wonderfully achieved in technicalities. Every scene resonates a kind of quaint spirit and melodrama embedded in Spanish culture, often to comical effect such as the over-dramatization of the kissing custom (3-4 times on every cheek for every woman). Each frame is lushly saturated with colour and blossom-strewn to the point of art. A pity it is that the formalities cannot overcome the director's blind fascination with women.
6 out of 10
For all its wide-ranging and complex family tree that needs screen time, the film does progress at a rather sedated and patient speed, often lingering not on plot elements but on the working class-ness and the struggle of each woman, whether it be abuse or overwork. In the first scene of the film, we are told that in La Mancha men die young and women live to be much older, resuming all the work. The men in "Volver" are nearly all marginal set pieces, as is usually Almodovar's style. This is all sweet and sensitive to the fairer sex, but the director loses himself in the idolization and empowering of women. When her father tries to rape her and she kills him in with a knife self-defense, Paula spends the rest of the film smiling, overcoming and moving on. The absolute faith in the power of women makes the characters of "Volver" not nuanced persons, but unrealistic superwomen.
Raimunda played by Penelope Cruz, inhabiting the protagonist slot, elicits the most sympathy from the viewer and rightly so for she is both well-written and well-acted. I think most people will be happy to find her altogether unlike the stereotypical 'hot Latina' roles she is relegated to play in Hollywood, and often completely botches. In "Volver" Cruz is emotive, fluent and comfortable, and most importantly back to her old Spanish self, albeit amended with a prosthetic butt, a few extra pounds and pushed-up breasts. Raimunda, her friends and her sisters all passionately bicker with Latina moods that shift with the breeze, but at the end of the day they all care immensely for each other.
I never bothered to recap the plot, partly because it is complex and confusing even for me, and partly because it does not seem wholly relevant to the story Pedro Almodóvar is trying to tell. His naked intention is to give us a portrait, not a finely-sketched out plot outline. Meanwhile, the portrait is truly wonderfully achieved in technicalities. Every scene resonates a kind of quaint spirit and melodrama embedded in Spanish culture, often to comical effect such as the over-dramatization of the kissing custom (3-4 times on every cheek for every woman). Each frame is lushly saturated with colour and blossom-strewn to the point of art. A pity it is that the formalities cannot overcome the director's blind fascination with women.
6 out of 10